The Heart of Lightness
Winter 2016
East Greenland is one of the most starkly beautiful places on our planet — and has been almost impossible to access, until now. Michelle Jana Chan ventures deep into the land of the midnight sun.

Discover the Origins of Mankind
September 2016
In addition to luxurious lodges, wildlife encounters, and stunning landscapes, this experience will take you deep into the world of the Leakeys, the legendary family of paleontologists who have made numerous important discovers on the shores of Lake Turkana, near the Ethiopian border.

Take a deep breath...
August 27, 2016
If you have seen Luc Besson’s 1988 film The Big Blue, you will know about the moment when the sport of freediving was propelled into the public consciousness. One character, Enzo Molinari, aims to dive the deepest, holding his breath the longest and pushing his body to the limit. The other, Jacques Mayol, is less interested in breaking records. [...]

Beyond the clichés
July 31, 2016
Rio is the word on everyone’s lips right now – but there is more to Brazil than Ipanema beach, Sugarloaf Mountain and the Art Deco landmark of the Christ the Redeemer statue. The country’s attractions are many and diverse, from the vast natural wonder of the Amazon rainforest to 16th-century colonial cities [...]

The day the mountains moved
April 24, 2016
There had been heavy rain overnight but now the clouds were lifting. I stopped on a promontory to admire the view across a wide valley towards the eastern arc of the Annapurna circuit. There was a steep drop below me and good visibility. I pulled out the map to pinpoint my location. The date was April 25 2015. Suddenly the ground began to shake. [...]

Freeze Frame
January 2016
The raw wilderness of Norway’s Svalbard is one of the harshest environments on the planet but it’s a land where everyone gets along, because getting along is the only way to survive. This is real-life ‘Fortitude’, the Scandic-Noir that’s soon to resurface. [...]

Travel Guide 2016
December 2015
It’s big on drama, this place. The location alone — on the Oloololo (try saying that after three G&Ts) escarpment, 1,000 feet above the Maasai Mara — will knock your little khaki shorts off. This striking new lodge has big names behind it: owned by safari legends Steve and Nicky Fitzgerald; designed by Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens [...]

Reinhold Messner’s MMM Corones: Man meets the mountains
September 5, 2015
From the top of Mount Kronplatz, I gaze at the rugged range of peaks around me. To the north are the Zillertal Alps; in the other direction, Marmolada glacier; the Lienz Dolomites lie east and the Ortler to the west. A crown of summits and spires, pinnacles and towers, and below, dark-green pine forests and meadows of wildflowers. [...]

Where man meets mountain
August 1, 2015
From the top of Mount Kronplatz, I gaze at the rugged range of peaks around me. To the north are the Zillertal Alps; in the other direction, Marmolada glacier; the Lienz Dolomites lie east and the Ortler to the west. A crown of summits and spires, pinnacles and towers, and below, dark-green pine forests and meadows of wildflowers. [...]

Underwater Love
July 2015
The fish around here know how special they are. They shimmer and glow and sparkle like stars in their own biopic, performing in the spotlight of crepuscular sunrays. There’s the arresting electric-blue giti damselfish with its flash yellow tail, the alluring doe-eyed, deep reef cardinalfish, and the jamal’s dottyback with aqua-rimmed eyes as startling as Daniel Craig’s. [...]

Tourism vital for Nepal’s recovery
May 9, 2015
It is two weeks since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Nepal, from the capital Kathmandu to the trekking regions of Langtang up to Everest Base Camp. Yet the picture is very mixed across the country. Some villages have been devastated while other regions are unaffected. [...]

Brave New Worlds
August 2013
Here’s the story of a man who made a billion bucks: first he launched himself into space, then he looked on Google Maps to find an island where he could be alone. But instead, he tells Michelle Jana Chan, he fell in love with a wonky lost land full of witch doctors and spider scientists. He’s now among a group of visionaries changing the way we travel. [...]

Thailand floods : stranded tourists criticise lack of information
March 31, 2011
Instead of golden beaches and romantic sunsets, stranded visitors were sharing photographs of flooded hotel lobbies and landslides. As rescue efforts get underway in flood-hit Thailand, Michelle Jana Chan speaks to tourists caught up in the chaos... [...]

Building the future
October 31, 2007
LONDON, England -- As the climate change debate rages, smart businesses are quietly studying its effects on our future lifestyle. High on the agenda is building more sustainable spaces for us to live and work in. [...]

Antarctica : On thin ice
May 3, 2007
HALF MOON ISLAND, Antarctica -- Iceberg Alley is an aptly named narrow channel on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. The water is afloat with glassy splinters, hardly bigger than an ice cube, ranging up to colossal tabular icebergs, some the size of several football pitches. [...]

Antarctica : March of the tourists
May 2, 2007
DEVIL ISLAND, Antarctica -- Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest place in the world but during the high summer, it can feel decidedly mild. From the top of Devil Island, off the eastern edge of the Antarctic Peninsula, the watery sun reflects off the vast tabular icebergs drifting around the Weddell Sea. [...]